Esteban Clemente

Esteban Clemente is 81 years old. He is married and has 6 children. He lives with his wife; his children are all married and live in the city of Montalvo, de los Ríos Province. He is a member of Las 3 Cruces communal bank; they grow cocoa, oranges and corn. Esteban Clemente sows cocoa and bananas for a living. He requests a loan to buy supplies, urea and fertilizers. Thanks to the loan he will be able to afford much needed supplies. He makes his purchases and sales in Montalvo city every week. His dream is to get through the bad financial times. The challenge he faces is the lack of money. In his spare time, he likes to rest.

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About Cooperativa San Jose

This loan is administered by Cooperativa San Jose, a 45,000-member credit union located high in the Andes Mountains of Ecuador’s poorest province, Bolivar. They offer a unique loan called “Ventanillas Rurales” [Window to the Countryside], which uses a group guarantee but is an individual loan with a savings component, mostly to rural borrowers. Due to low savings rates and a history of macroeconomic instability, many traditional loans in Ecuador demand interest rates that are prohibitively high for some borrowers. There is also a high incidence of extortionist black-market lending in Ecuador. CSJ helps mitigate these problems by providing a less onerous and more appropriate option. Join CSJ’s Lending Team!